Glory Days for the Waifs and the Strays Identity and Meaning in the Rise of the Modern Manchester City

On 12 May 2019, Manchester City became the first team to retain the Premier League title for a decade.

Twenty years earlier, the same club was slogging its way fortuitously out of Division Two, having sunk ignominiously to the third tier, its glory days well behind it.

Ordinarily, the tale of a sleeping giant awaking to stomp gleefully over the competition would be celebrated far beyond the core fanbase. But City’s success is tied inextricably to its takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in September 2008, an event that altered the club’s horizons beyond any plausible recognition. The injection of billions of pounds into the club and accusations that Abu Dhabi is ‘sports washing’ its reputation have tarnished City’s domestic treble-winning season in 2023–24, as have serious charges of financial impropriety from the Premier League.

Glory Days for the Waifs and the Strays charts this route from noble rags to uncomfortable riches and unpacks what it means when a team’s lowest lows and highest highs occur improbably within a generation.

It amounts to a story like no other in modern football. The distance travelled from there to here, the iconic human moments along the way, the greats on either side of the white line and the uniquely divisive means by which it’s been achieved. Manchester City have defined an era in English football. This is the tale of how that happened and why it matters.

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